The Black College Sabbatical:
Fourth Quarter
by Tracie E. Christian

Reviewed by: Starr Baldwin

In The Black College Sabbatical: Fall Quarter, author Tracie E. Christian tells the story of college life at a Historically Black University (HBU) called Heritage State University in New Jersey. The reader is taken on a journey with four young women who meet at freshman orientation by chance and become close friends; each of whom has their own set of issues that are covered randomly throughout the book

The characters are very defined and manage to linger in your mind in such a way that you are often left wondering what will actually happen to them, will things change with them or will they stay the same. You will discover what it is truly like for Tina being a White student trying to succeed in a Black environment; you will hope CeeCee learns to overcome her various problems; you will sympathize with Kyla as she struggles with two important relationships in her life; and you will ache for Ananda, as she struggles with being an overachiever who is not reaching what she feels is her full potential.

You will see more and more of each character with every chapter you read, and by the ending cliffhanger, you will feel compelled to purchase the next installment, because you will want to know what happens to these four friends.

A guardian angel, who is assigned to one of the girls, walks the reader through the book, summarizing events past in early chapters and prepares the reader for the possibility of things to come. At the end of Fall Quarter, I was still unsure as to which young woman the angel was assigned to, because she spoke about and understood each character intimately and completely.

The supporting male characters in the book contribute heavily to the storyline. Even the briefly mentioned characters, such as the parents of some of the main characters, are memorable, and leave you with a lasting impression.

Having attended a HBU myself, I truly enjoyed this glimpse into the magical collegiate world that can only exist at an HBU it brought back a lot of memories when I was a freshman.

What did you like best about this book?
The author gave great insight into what it would be like to attend and what to expect from a prestigious HBU. It gives you a taste of advice on how you could cope with your first real encounter of being away from home, meeting friends that will become your life long friends, and lastly how cool it is to go away to college.

What did you dislike about this book?
I didn't like the angel in the book. I am not sure of the purpose of the angel, because it was more like the angel was there to remind you of what was taking place and never let on to who the angel was there to help out. I didn't like the way the book just ended with a cliffhanger when it really only started to get good around page 150.

How can the author approve this book?
I am a firm believer that the book cover is what grabs the reader's attention first. The cover needs major improvement, it doesn't relate to the title of the book at all. Improve the cover and the editing, take the angel because it's not needed and elaborate more on what is really going on with the characters before you close out with a cliffhanger and never really get to the bottom of things.

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